Animoji

Animoji debuted with iOS 11 as fun Messages feature involving animated characters that use your iPhone's front-facing camera to mimic your facial movements and expressions. iOS 12 introduced Memoji which are basically customizable human Animoji. iOS 13 now lets you use both Memoji and Animoji as your profile picture. Not only can you use them as your own avatar, but you can create Animoji and Memoji profile pics for your contacts as well.

Animoji and Memoji are animated emoji that mimic your facial expressions using your iPhone's forward facing camera. While most adults are probably not going to converse with animated emojis, kids definitely delight in them. Unfortunately only the iPhone X or later, iPad Pro 11-inch or iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) can create and send Animoji and Memoji (though any iOS or Android device can receive them).

In addition to adding a few new Animoji and introducing Memoji, which are basically personalized Animoji, iOS 12 lets iPhone X owners use both moji in FaceTime video calls. The new AR feature is similar to using the face-tracking filters offered by Snapchat - the Animoji's facial expressions will mimic yours (now including your tongue and winking gestures with iOS 12). Next time you make a FaceTime call, try slapping on a pig face or try out the newly added T-Rex. Here's how to do it on iPhone X:

In addition to adding several new Animoji including a tiger, koala, T-rex and ghost, and adding tongue detection, iOS 12 also introduces Memoji. Memoji are personalized avatars that essentially allow you to create an Animoji of yourself, letting you customize your head shape, skin tone, hair style, eyes, accessories and more. Like the other Animoji, Memoji require the TrueDepth camera and thus are only currently available on the iPhone X. Here's how to create and use Memoji on iPhone:

One of the most highly touted features of Apple's flagship phone, Face ID, is made possible by the iPhone X's new TrueDepth front-facing camera system. It senses features by projecting infrared dots in a known pattern and measuring the distance of each, thereby creating a topographical map of the subject. Rather than using this technology only for security, Apple had some fun with it and created Animoji.